The Bunny, the Doctor, and the Closet
by Verthril
Summary: As it turned out, the girl's closet was big enough for the TARDIS, it was the kind of walk in closet that many women and some men dreamed of.


Marvel owns the X-men, while the BBC own Doctor Who, no profit is to be made from this work.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

It was her birthday, nothing so memorable as her sweet sixteen, but it was the first one he ever spent with her. That meant a lot to him, he wouldn't be there to celebrate it if it hadn't been for her. He owed her his life, there weren't a lot of people he could count off that he owed a debt like that to, most of them were present and accounted for right down to a little lady who had blown out her own sixteen candles.

"It ain't as flashy as what the Cajun got ya, and it ain't as slick as those new blades the Professor got ya, but it's something I think you'll like." Logan quietly rumbled on in his gravely voice as he passed off his poorly wrapped gift.

It took calling in a favour to a fella he knew to get, a man that could be a bit of a pain in the ass at times but still always had his heart in the right place...well, one of them anyway. He only even knew to cash that favour in because they'd been window shopping at a toy store one day after dragging him on in, and she'd seen something that had her all looking fragile and small that reminded him that she still was just a kid, all her piss and vinegar aside.

"Oh my god Logan..."

That was all he needed to hear to know he'd done right.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

"Are you a closet monster?"

Snapping out his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor ran it over himself complete with the hum and whine it made as it worked away. The little girl watched him with all the kind of disbelief any child her age had learnt after all those harsh lessons had been taught, lessons like finding out that Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real. It was enough to leave a kid jaded.

"No, I'm no closet monster."

"Then who are you?" The little girl asked, dressed in a pretty pink onesy and holding a stuffed bunny.

"I'm the Doctor."

"What are you doing in my closet?"

"That's a good question, just what am I doing in your closet?"

As it turned out, the girl's closet was big enough for the TARDIS, it was the kind of walk in closet that many women and some men dreamed of. It was very neat, tidy, and filled in school uniforms and dresses and leotards among all the everyday wear that would see a child along.

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked as he tried to figure out just what he was doing in the girl's closet.

"Jubilee, what's yours?"

"Don't you remember? I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

If there was one thing the Doctor had a keen sense for, it was trouble, and the scowl the little girl had for him just then was full of it. There was a scream coming, he could always tell when someone was about to scream...well, usually. It helped that he hadn't turned his back on her yet, her closet really was interesting what with all the outfits, it rather reminded him of his own.

"Would you like to see my TARDIS?"

On the very verge of drawing a deep breath for her scream, Jubilee neatly snapped her mouth shut to consider his question. That was normally the next question people tended to ask him once all the introductions were over, well, truthfully that really depended on the situation. Sometimes they asked '_Why_?' which usually came after he said to run.

"Okay." Jubilee replied after a moments thoughtfulness.

Beaming a gleaming smile at her, he was really starting to like this girl. He lead her in and waited, and waited, and waited some more. It never really did get old, rocking back and forth on his heels with his hands in his pockets waiting for her to finally ask him that one question.

"Well?" The Doctor prompted with a look down to Jubilee.

"It smells." Jubilee said with a wrinkle of her nose.

"That's it? It smells?!"

She gave the kind of dismissive shrug children were really good at, mostly because all too often they'd been told if they didn't have anything nice to say...to not say anything at all. Well, if the fact that it was bigger on the inside didn't impress her, it was time to move along to something that surely would.

"If you could go anywhere, where would you go?"

"Anywhere in the world?" Jubilee asked, looking just a bit suspicious.

"Anywhere in the Universe. At any time."

By her pinched face, the Doctor imagined she was either considering just where in all of time and space she would want to go, or if she should get back to screaming for her parents. Children her age, somewhere around six he would guess, were rather funny that way.

"Somewhere snowy."

His smile was back, beaming bright and growing even broader as she joined him. Snowy he could do, snowy like she couldn't even dream of. But first...

"Just wait right there!"

Rushing back out into her closet, whoever her parents were they clearly didn't do things by half measure. A rummage of her racks found it quickly enough. It was the kind of snowsuit that children waited until their parents had finished bundling them up in to tell that they had to go potty. Gloves dangled from strings in that bit of commonsense meant to make sure they didn't get lost. There was a tag that said it had last been used for skiing in Aspen. The matching boots were found up on the shelf above the curtain road.

"Do you like tobogganing?" The Doctor asked as he came back with all her winter wear.

It was the kind of question asked to move the conversation along, he didn't expect her to say no and she didn't. What she did do was look around the TARDIS with a question in her eyes.

"Where's your potty?"

Smiling at Jubilee, a beaming and bright smile full of mischief and fun, the Doctor saw that this girl had been born into a family that had just that right mix of common sense to ask all the right questions, but still know when to just do something just a bit reckless when the opportunity presented itself.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

"Mister Floppy!" Jubilee gasped, holding the stuffed rabbit to her chest and crying without a care to who saw her.

All it took to know the Doc wasn't pulling his leg was a sniff, it had her scent all over it and smelt years younger. Every moment the Doctor spent going on about fixed points and crossing time limes turned out to be a whole lot of wasted breath after all. He knew better than to go asking after the impossible, but where was the harm in finding some birthday girl's favourite toy bunny she lost back when she'd been a kid.

"Got another gift for ya to open up, from an old friend we happen to have in common or so it seems. He said to save the card to last."

With Mister Floppy in her lap, Jubilee opened up the next gift and looked on it with still teary eyes. It was a snow globe, the detail so astonishing she couldn't believe it. It was a memory become a dream that returned to her as she shook it and looked at the scene captured inside. It was the funny man she found in her closet one night who took her tobogganing somewhere snowy.

Opening up the card, she blinked away her tears that just wouldn't go away, it actually looked a lot more like a postcard found in a gift shop than anything meant for a birthday. She thought just maybe all the squiggly lines and squares meant '_Wish you were here!_', but flipping it over she saw something that made more sense to her.

"Allons-y..." Jubilee read aloud.

It was signed the Doctor, and across all of space and time she could remember asking a question she had forgotten about until that moment...

"Doctor who?"

Even as she asked it there came a noise, a noise that woke her up one night that had come from her closet. She'd been places since then, she had seen things, but watching as a blue box faded into existence...she couldn't help but walk up to that box just as she had all those years before. Clutching Mister Floppy to her chest and not the least bit afraid, not this time nor the last, she stared at the door and waited. His head poked out after a moment, bearing a smile bright and blinding and full of mischief, and in his eyes he had a question for her.

"If you could go anywhere, where would you go?" The Doctor asked her again, happy to wait for her answer.

Looking over her shoulder to those people who had become her friends, who had become family, she knew they'd be waiting for her once she got back. Having one last sniffle and clutching her beloved toy bunny to her chest, Jubilee found her breath and smiled for the Doctor with teary eyes.

"Somewhere snowy."

"Snowy I can do, just don't go leaving him behind this time."

Holding her bunny tighter to her chest, it was a mistake she wouldn't make twice.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-


End file.
